Type
Date
Corporate author
Editor
Illustrator
Producer
Photographer
Contributor
Writer
Translator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Access Rights
APA citation
Marenya, P. P., Gatua, J. G., & Rahut, D. B. (2023). Pathways from information to the adoption of conservation agriculture practices in Malawi and Tanzania. Renewable Agriculture And Food Systems, 38, e33. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1742170523000194
ISO citation
Abstract
Description
To reduce agriculture's carbon, land and water footprint, the diffusion of conservation farming methods is one commonly cited proposition. Yet the process of translating available information on new conservation farming methods into farmers' practices is often a black box in many studies. This understanding is critical to inform strategies for scaling these complex, knowledge-intensive, but necessary practices for improving agriculture's resource and climate balance sheet. By implementing a series of mediation analysis using data from 700 households in Malawi and 930 households in Tanzania, this study examines how an improved understanding of conservation agriculture (CA) principles is an important mediator in the pathway from extension contact to the adoption of two of the CA practices examined. For the adoption of conservation tillage, the share of the mediated treatment effect was in the 31.5–34.4% range, while it was 31.6–46.9% for the adoption of soil cover (mulching). Our results suggest that unless learning from external sources strongly correlates with improved farmers' technical understanding of new farming practices, private learning by doing must be a critical adjunct to other avenues of learning. Beyond the basic promotional goals, improving farmers' technical know-how needs to be the centerpiece of holistic efforts in support of conservation farming and similar knowledge-intensive practices necessary for agriculture's sustinability goals.
Keywords
Citation
Copyright
CIMMYT manages Intellectual Assets as International Public Goods. The user is free to download, print, store and share this work. In case you want to translate or create any other derivative work and share or distribute such translation/derivative work, please contact CIMMYT-Knowledge-Center@cgiar.org indicating the work you want to use and the kind of use you intend; CIMMYT will contact you with the suitable license for that purpose
Journal
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems
Journal volume
38
Journal issue
Article number
Place of Publication
United Kingdom
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Donor or Funder
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
Australian International Food Security Research Centre (AIFSRC)
CGIAR Research Program on Maize
Australian International Food Security Research Centre (AIFSRC)
CGIAR Research Program on Maize
Related Datasets
CGIAR
Initiative
Diversification in East and Southern Africa
Impact Area
Climate adaptation & mitigation
Environmental health & biodiversity
Environmental health & biodiversity
Action Area
Resilient Agrifood Systems